Random balls models are collections of Euclidean balls whose centers and radii are generated by a Poisson point process. Such collections model various contexts ranging from imaging to communication network. When the distributions driving the centers and the radii are heavy-tailed, interesting interference phenomena occurs when the model is properly zoomed-out. The talk aims to illustrate such phenomena and to give an overview of the asymptotic behavior of functionals of interest. The limits obtained include in particular stable fields, (fractional) Gaussian fields and Poissonian bridges. Related questions will also be discussed.

Given two complex polynomials, we can try to mathematically paste them
together to obtain a rational function through a procedure known as
mating the polynomials. In this talk, we will begin by trying to
understand the "shape" of complex polynomials in general. We will then
discuss the mating of two quadratic polynomials: we explore examples
where the mating does exist, and examples where it does not. There will
be lots of movies and exploration in this talk.

It is well known that all contact 3-manifolds can be obtained from the standard contact structure on the 3-sphere by contact surgery on a Legendrian link. Hence, an interesting and much studied question asks what properties are preserved under various types of contact surgeries. The case for the negative contact surgeries is fairly well understood. In this talk, we will discuss some new results about positive contact surgeries and in particular completely characterize when contact r surgery is symplectically/Stein fillable when r is in (0,1]. This is joint work with James Conway and John Etnyre.

The ground state solution to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS) is a global, non-scattering solution that often provides a threshold between scattering and blowup. In this talk, we will discuss new, simplified proofs of scattering below the ground state threshold (joint with B. Dodson) in both the radial and non-radial settings.

Understanding contact structures on
hyperbolic 3-manifolds is one of the major open problems in the area of contact
topology. As a first step, we try to classify tight contact structures on a specific hyperbolic 3-manifold. In this talk, we will review the previous classification
results and classify tight contact structures on the Weeks manifold, which
has the smallest hyperbolic volume. Finally,
we will discuss how to generalize this method to classify tight contact structures
on some other hyperbolic 3-manifolds.

We provide a new definition of a local walk dimension beta that depends only on the metric. Moreover, we study the local Hausdorff dimension and prove that any variable Ahlfors regular measure of variable dimension Q is strongly equivalent to the local Hausdorff measure with Q the local Hausdorff dimension, generalizing the constant dimensional case. Additionally, we provide constructions of several variable dimensional spaces, including a new example of a variable dimensional Sierpinski carpet. We use the local exponent beta in time-scale renormalization of discrete time random walks, that are approximate at a given scale in the sense that the expected jump size is the order of the space scale. We consider the condition that the expected time to leave a ball scales like the radius of the ball to the power beta of the center. We then study the Gamma and Mosco convergence of the resulting continuous time approximate walks as the space scale goes to zero. We prove that a non-trivial Dirichlet form with Dirichlet boundary conditions on a ball exists as a Mosco limit of approximate forms. We also prove tightness of the associated continuous time processes.

The h-principle is a powerful tool in differential topology which is used to study spaces of functionswith certain distinguished properties (immersions, submersions, k-mersions, embeddings, free maps, etc.). Iwill discuss some examples of the h-principle and give a neat proof of a special case of the Smale-HirschTheorem, using the "removal of singularities" h-principle technique due to Eliashberg and Gromov. Finally, I willdefine and discuss totally convex immersions and discuss some h-principle statements in this context.

This talk follows Chapter 4 of the well known text by Guckenheimer and Holmes. It is intended to present the theorems on averaging for systems with periodic perturbation, but slow evolution of the solution. Also, a discussion of Melnikov’s method for finding persistence of homoclinic orbits and periodic orbits will also be given. Time permitting, an application to the circular restricted three body problem may also be included.

Electrons possess both spin and charge. In one dimension, quantum theory predicts that systems of interacting electrons may behave as though their charge and spin are transported at different speeds.We discuss examples of how such many-particle effects may be simulated using neutral atoms and radiation fields. Joint work with Xiao-Feng Shi

Given a collection of finite sets, Kneser-type problems aim to partition this collection into parts with well-understood intersection pattern, such as in each part any two sets intersect. Since Lovász' solution of Kneser's conjecture, concerning intersections of all k-subsets of an n-set, topological methods have been a central tool in understanding intersection patterns of finite sets. We will develop a method that in addition to using topological machinery takes the topology of the collection of finite sets into account via a translation to a problem in Euclidean geometry. This leads to simple proofs of old and new results.